LONDON – Manchester City shrugged off the absence of Erling Haaland to close to within two points of English Premier League leaders Arsenal with a 1-0 win at Leeds, while Liverpool defeated West Ham 5-2 to climb into fifth.
Haaland was absent for the trip to the city of his birth due to a minor injury that Guardiola described as “not a big problem”.
Without the Norwegian, City were far from their best but ground out a vital three points against a Leeds side that had lost just twice in their previous 16 games.
Leeds were left to rue not making the most of their early dominance as Dominic Calvert-Lewin skewed wide a glorious chance just three minutes in.
Antoine Semenyo instead proved to be the match-winner with his sixth goal in 11 games since joining City last month.
Tempers flared at full-time as Leeds boss Daniel Farke was shown a red card for confronting referee Peter Bankes, while Guardiola was also furious at the officials.
The pressure is now on Arsenal to respond when they host Chelsea in the pick of Sunday’s action.
Liverpool’s new-found strength from set-pieces masked another unconvincing performance against struggling West Ham.
All three first-half goals from Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister came from dead balls, putting Arne Slot’s men in a commanding position.
Liverpool has gone from the worst Premier League performers in terms of set-pieces at the end of 2025 to the best since January 1.
“In my opinion we have played better when we lost,” said Slot according to AFP. “We start scoring from set-pieces and things start looking brighter and better than when you don’t.”
Dutch duo Cody Gakpo and Jeremie Frimpong added more goals after the break.
Defeat deals another blow to the Hammers’ hopes of survival as they remain two points adrift of safety.
But they hit back twice in the second half through Tomas Soucek and Valentin Castellanos and could have scored more at Anfield.
A place in the top five is almost certain to secure Champions League football next season thanks to the strong results of English sides in European competition this season.
Liverpool moves three points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea.
Burnley’s slim chances of survival took another body blow in an agonising 4-3 defeat at home to Brentford.
The Bees were cruising to victory and within two points of Chelsea when goals from Mikkel Damsgaard, Igor Thiago and Kevin Schade put them 3-0 up inside 34 minutes at Turf Moor.
Michael Kayode’s own goal gave the Clarets hope before half-time and they levelled through Jaidon Anthony and Zian Flemming.
Flemming thought he had completed a remarkable comeback only for a VAR review to rule the goal out for offside.
Instead, it was Brentford who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when Damsgaard netted his second goal in stoppage time.
There was still time for another VAR review to deny Burnley a point when Ashley Barnes was adjudged to have handled before scoring a 98th-minute equaliser.
Everton notched another excellent away win to maintain their hope of European football next season with a 3-2 victory at Newcastle.
Three times the Toffees led at St James’ Park through Jarrod Branthwaite, Beto and Thierno Barry.
Everton has struggled to adapt to their new home at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, but only Arsenal have won more points on the road, with David Moyes’ men climbing into eighth.
Bournemouth stretched their unbeaten league run to eight games after coming from behind to rescue a 1-1 draw at home to Sunderland in the lunchtime kick-off.
